DENVER, CO
The American Cheese Society (ACS) has issued a formal position backing the safety of the wooden board aging process. It reads:
“For centuries, cheesemakers have been creating delicious, nutritious, unique cheeses aged on wood. Today’s cheesemakers—large and small, domestic and international—continue to use this material for production due to its inherent safety, unique contribution to the aging and flavor-development process, and track record of safety as part of overall plant hygiene and good manufacturing practices. No foodborne illness outbreak has been found to be caused by the use of wood as an aging surface.
The American Cheese Society (ACS) strongly encourages FDA to revise its interpretation of the Code of Federal Regulation (21 CFR 110.40(a)) to continue to permit properly maintained, cleaned, and sanitized wood as an aging surface in cheesemaking as has been, and is currently, enforced by state and federal regulators and inspectors."
This declaration is in response to a statement by Monica Metz, Chief of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition’s Dairy and Egg Branch, that “the use of wooden shelves, rough or otherwise, for cheese ripening does not conform to cGMP [Current Good Manufacturing Practice] requirements.”
For the full ACS position regarding the safety and necessary good practices of wooden shelve cheese aging please click here.
